'Bye, neighbor.' Since 1968, a kindly, soft-spoken man in a cardigan sweater and sneakers, Fred Rogers, has entertained children and taught them life's lessons on his television show, "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" and invited them into his neighborhood with a song, ''It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood ... Would you be mine, could you be mine, won't you be my neighbor?''
But the last visit to the neighborhood has been made and only the memories, known as reruns, will be shown on the public broadcasting stations. "I hope that children for years and years to come will be able to be nourished by them," Rogers, 73, told a reporter from the Boston Globe from his home on Nantucket. Yet some worry that while the show will go on in reruns, the values he stood for may not continue, the reporter noted.
The Emmy award winning Rogers talked directly to the children who watched his show, in a one-to-one fashion, and covered the myriad of concerns that today's children face: emotions such as happiness, loneliness, shyness, self-esteem, self-worth and the world around them. He created a calm, safe place for them to learn and then he showed them what was going on in the world as he explained how things such as sneakers are made. He also invited talented artists on his show as guests to teach children about the arts.
The philosophy of the television show was to make the pace slow and keep it simple, with all of the parts connected, "because that is how young children learn best." Fred Rogers, as creator and writer relied on his own studies and his work with consultants to carefully structure the program to help children develop the skills they need for learning.
The web site has plenty of fun things for children to do, such as building their own neighborhood. The note to parents reminds them, " As children grow, they move from being family-centered to understanding there is a whole community around them. Creating neighborhoods in their artwork can help them realize that people live in all kinds of communities of neighbors and friends."
"Bye, neighbor."
Pat Rioux
